


beans and joy on toast

by leiascully



Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: Community: dogdaysofsummer, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-07-12
Updated: 2006-07-12
Packaged: 2017-10-03 07:06:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leiascully/pseuds/leiascully
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"The best thing for stormy boredom is some time in the kitchen."</p>
            </blockquote>





	beans and joy on toast

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline: Marauders  
> A/N: The prompt was "summer puddings". Toast is in homage to the Shoebox Project.  
> Disclaimer: _Harry Potter_ and all related characters are the property of JK Rowling and Scholastic. No profit is made from this work and no infringement is intended.

James' mother had put them to work in the kitchen one rainy afternoon. "Young hellions," she'd said affectionately, "the best thing for stormy boredom is some time in the kitchen. Give you some life skills."

"Mom," James had protested, but she'd handed them a bowl of fruit, a recipe book, and gone to the movies with James' father. The boys had drifted into the kitchen with practised indifference, pretending that there was suddenly something delicious in the fridge. Remus, of course, took up the book first, weighing it in his hands and brushing flour from the pages with his careful fingers. Sirius leaned over his shoulder, the point of his chin unsteady on the seam of Remus' shirt, to breathe gently and surreptitiously into Remus' ear and critique the recipes.

"Too complicated. Eugh, blackcurrant? That doesn't have fruit at all, Moony, and what the bloody hell is a chafing pan? Sounds unpleasant."

"That one," said Peter, pointing to the page with the fewest instructions.

"Tha shalt have a proper pudding," murmured Sirius in Remus' ear, a ticklish attempt at a Yorkshire accent.

James sliced bread from one of the round loaves his mother had baked, and Peter, who was good at logic puzzles, fitted it into a dish. Remus set Sirius to stoning and slicing the cherries and peaches, taking thirsty glances at the pale insides of Sirius' fine wrists as the tendons flexed against the resistance of the knife. Remus himself stood over the stove in the flush of heat from the burner, moving the cut fruit gently in the pan. The noise of the flame made a pretty counterpoint to the hush and patter of the rain.

"It's like we're cooking," said James, hoisting himself up to sit on the counter, a slice of bread in one hand and the other brushing his hair out of his eyes.

"Almost like," said Remus with a touch of irony.

Peter eyed the rest of the loaf. "I am going to do toast," he said decisively. He cut only slightly ragged slices and rummaged in the drawers for a toasting fork.

"For me, too," said Sirius, "and Remus," and when no one was looking, he put a slice of peach against Remus' lips. Remus bit down and tasted the sweetness, the bitter of the rough crimson around the pit, the delicate fuzz of the skin. He swallowed and Sirius smiled at him. Remus finished off the pudding and put it away in the fridge near Sunday's roast.

"Toast," said James piteously, muffled through the last of his bread. "Toast."

"I will find beans," said Sirius, and made a lot of clattering noises in the cupboard as Remus spooned fruit in its sugary juices over the bread in the bowl. Peter toasted the bread in the manly way, over the open flame of the burner that Remus had left, and Sirius wrestled with the can opener until Remus took it from him. James heaved himself off the counter.

"I'll do up eggs and sausages, if Remus will find mushrooms."

"Tomatoes!" said Sirius, ladling beans into a pan. "Mushrooms are both optional and slimy."

"Tomatoes are slimier," Remus pointed out, but he found both and picked up the knife, slicing the tomatoes heedless of the pale and crimson pools of juice collected in the warp of the old wooden cutting board.

"Better than hustling house elves, even," said Sirius, and bumped his hip against Remus' under the cover of the counter, and the sun broke through the clouds and lit up the kitchen and Remus' pleased eyes.


End file.
